Space Castle and Ratmen

After signing the contract, making the payment, and handling the paperwork together—which was relatively simple for a pet shop and only cost a few hundred yuan—the pet shop officially belonged to Lu Zhiyu.

Now that he owned his own pet shop, Lu Zhiyu got busy. After hiring people to make minor adjustments to the decor, the new Cats and Dogs Pet Shop officially opened for business. The previous owner had left behind a pet groomer for Lu Zhiyu; she was experienced and very familiar with caring for the shop's animals, which was a huge help to Lu Zhiyu, who was just starting out.

"Xiao Le, sorry for the trouble. I'm just getting started, so there's a lot to handle. If you have any issues, feel free to let me know!"

"Understood, Boss!" the girl with micro-curled hair replied politely to Lu Zhiyu. The two waved goodbye, and he watched as she turned and walked toward the intersection in front of the main road, disappearing into the night lights along with the crowd.

Lu Zhiyu had been busy all day, and as night fell, the first day of business finally came to an end. He hadn't sold any pets today, but quite a few people had come in for grooming and bathing services. Xiao Le wasn't very old, but she loved animals, and her grooming skills were excellent. Every scruffy, dirty cat or dog that came in left looking like a model.

Lu Zhiyu sat in the pet shop with the door half-closed, reading for a while before heading home. Once home, he went straight to the laboratory he had set up earlier. It was empty now. Lu Zhiyu took out the Universe Scroll and unfurled it, revealing the interior of the crystal wall system. Unlike before, there was now a tiny bubble inside, so small it was invisible to the naked eye.

This was a small dimensional plane Lu Zhiyu had developed for himself. The space inside was very small, only about a thousand square meters. The entire plane was essentially the space of a single building, filled with stone to seal every gap. It was divided into nine levels, featuring a Western ancient architectural style, much like a castle.

However, this small dimensional plane was not independent; it was embedded directly onto Maria World, clinging tightly to it. Its internal circulation system, energy, and even air were all drawn from within Maria World, rather than being an independent world plane.

Because of this, it only cost Lu Zhiyu three units of Source Substance to complete the transformation when he created this small dimensional space. This space, embedded into Maria World, served as his secret base, which he named the Space Castle.

Lu Zhiyu put away the Universe Scroll and looked at the floor, where an incredibly complex magic circle was inscribed. He injected his mental energy to activate the Dimensional Gate. With a flicker of a shadow, he vanished from Earth, and a figure appeared inside the Space Castle. As soon as Lu Zhiyu arrived, the lights flickered on, illuminating every corner beneath his feet.

Standing in the first-floor hall, Lu Zhiyu felt a bit overwhelmed. Looking at the crystal chandelier above, the wall carvings, and the light switches—some generated using Source Substance, some purchased from Earth, and others harvested from Maria World and integrated through rule-based generation—he realized this was what formed the castle.

This was Lu Zhiyu's first time entering the space inside the Universe Scroll. Only when standing here in the flesh could he truly feel that the world he had created was not fake or illusory, but genuinely, tangibly real.

He looked at the high ceiling, the glass embedded within it, and the refracted light. Lu Zhiyu looked left and right, then walked up the stairs to the second floor, where rooms appeared before his eyes. Everything was built according to his blueprints, though many lacked furnishings; after all, even with Source Substance, Lu Zhiyu could not generate things he did not understand.

Moreover, Lu Zhiyu wanted to save every bit of Source Substance he could. Even 0.0001 was still Source Substance—the most fundamental energy in the world. Without the Universe Scroll, he would never have been able to touch such a high-level existence.

Walking upward, the castle contained a conference hall, library, dining room, indoor pool, lounge, bedrooms, laboratory, and prison, with a botanical garden on the top floor. It was a five-story building above ground with four levels below, its overall scale almost unimaginable.

The current power supply relied on diesel generators, which were barely sufficient, but Lu Zhiyu had other ideas. He thought of the Bio-Nuclear Energy Machine left behind by the Insect Queen, which was still abandoned in the Painting Space, hidden deep within the withered Mother Nest.

It could consume any matter, even water, to convert into nuclear energy. It was precisely because of this machine that the Insect Queen, Sunike, was able to sustain her "zerg rush" strategy and conquer the world. Although the device lacked intelligence or consciousness, it was extremely dangerous. Lu Zhiyu only had the idea for now; realizing it would take time!

Lu Zhiyu walked to the top floor, which featured a fully open-air skylight design. The surroundings were covered in glass, forming a circular dome—the botanical garden he had envisioned, though it remained an empty shell for now.

Lu Zhiyu turned on the lights and could see a blurry protective layer outside the glass: the plane wall. Ordinary people could never approach or touch it; if they walked into it, they would naturally be turned back, as the spatial folds within would make them feel as if they had entered a labyrinth.

Beyond this plane wall, with its countless folds, lay the Aether Sea, or the Astral Realm. That place was absolute nothingness; currently, there was nothing there, and no existence could survive!

After inspecting the Space Castle, Lu Zhiyu returned to the bedroom he had prepared for himself and took out the Universe Scroll, hanging it on the wall. He wouldn't easily take the scroll out of here unless necessary; after all, it was safest here. He held the control permissions for the Universe Scroll, so it made no difference where he was—he could enter and exit freely through the Dimensional Gate!

Lu Zhiyu adjusted the perspective on the Universe Scroll, watching as Maria World continuously zoomed in until a green continent gradually appeared before his eyes. In a valley, he saw a group of short, humanoid creatures. These little guys had short white fur, long whiskers, small eyes, and limbs that had evolved to be very similar to humans.

This was the result of Lu Zhiyu's previous experiment: the Ratmen. A true intelligent race had been created by him and had formed a community within Maria World. Lu Zhiyu had used rat genes overlaid with a human template to create the Ratmen's genome, then synthesized an artificial embryo and placed it into a dog's womb to gestate. He hadn't expected to actually create an intelligent race.

Though adults only stood about 1.3 meters tall, they had already entered the Primitive Society era. They were capable of using tools, fire, and making clothes from animal hides; the seeds of civilization had begun to sprout.

Lu Zhiyu observed the actions and appearance of these little guys through the Universe Scroll, his pupils constricting as if he were witnessing the miracle of life.

"Creating intelligent life—I actually managed to do it!" Lu Zhiyu felt as if he had touched the realm of the gods!